Never Trust a Old Book
by CUtopia
Summary: A curious Headmaster, a book that is up to no good and a Deputy who has to clean up the mess


Entry for the "Art Club" at "Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry (Challenges and Assignments)"

_Category:_ Pot Luck

I hope you like it, leave me your opinion! :)

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Minerva McGonagall, Deputy Headmistress of Hogwarts, was annoyed. Her boss, Albus Dumbledore, was behaving odd – something that happened more often, so she was used to it, but this behaviour had gotten worryingly worse over the last few days and she had spent this time to clean up behind him. At first, he had only missed some staff meetings, leaving the duty of briefing the staff to her, nothing that would have challenged her, but only hours later she had received a owl from a member of the school council with a note from Albus, asking her to handle the request as he was busy with "something".

Anger had boiled up inside her – she was always ready to help him, it was what a deputy did, but it made her furious that he was shoving his work over to her without a good explanation. But it had not stopped there: Somehow she found herself organising nearly every school matter while Dumbledore would lock himself inside his office, except for one hour a day in which he walked around, causing troubles as if he was a Weasley twin – students reported about portraits being jinxed, stolen sweets, hallways turned into lakes and Severus Snape's hair being dyed in a stinging yellow, just like a lemon drop.

Minerva, drowning in work as she tried to organise her Transfigurations classes and keep the school business going, had asked herself what was wrong with him and as she had received a bouquet of carnivores with a note "For my lovely Minnie-pie" half a hour ago she had decided to put an end to this – with violence, if necessary.

"Lemon Drops!" she snarled at the gargoyle guarding Albus' office as she approached him with wide steps and it hurried to jump to the side, maybe a bit threatened by her furious glare. Minerva practically ran up the stairs and did not mind to knock before entering the office, shouting:"Albus Dumbledore, what the hell is wrong with you?!"

She stopped halfway into the round room, breathing heavily as she let her gaze wander around, searching for the man that who currently was making her life hell, including a splitting headache.

"Oh, don´t you dare to hide from me like a little child, Albus! I know you are in here!" she spat out as it appeared to her that he was nowhere in sight. His childish behaviour was something she would not accept any longer and Albus surely knew that he had just brought the Scottish Storm to life.

Minerva was just ready to take her wand and blast his desk away with a _Reducto _spell as she heard a strange noise from the corner of the room where Albus had placed a sofa where he used to spent time reading. She turned on her heel and her eyes widened in shock as her gaze fell on said sofa. It was a unbelievable sight and she pinched herself a few times in order to make sure that she was not imagining this due to the stress she had had in the last days.

Albus' midnight blue robes lay messily on the cushions of the sofa and in the middle of this puddle of fabric sat a huge lizard, looking at her with calm blue eyes, wearing one of the Headmaster's hats. Minerva slowly approached the sofa, staring down at the animal, searching for the right words in her confused state and somehow she managed to stutter:"A-albus? Is that... you?!"

The lizard nodded slowly and Minerva moaned, letting herself fall down on the sofa – suddenly she felt extremely exhausted.

"I... how... just... wait, this is not some animagus form, right? No? Good... just... how did this happen, Albus?!"

Lizard-Albus looked over to a open book that was lying on the armrest of the sofa, next to his wand and Minerva immediately was suspicious as she took it and read the page – it seemed like a book that was not doing anything positive.

"There is no counter-jinx in here, Albus. We will have to try every spell I know until we find one that will cure your condition," she explained to him after some time of flicking through the pages of the book that seemed to be extremely old. Pulling her wand out of the pocket of her emerald robes she murmured to herself:"I can´t believe I am helping you after all I have been through in the last days thanks to you..."

It took Minerva over an hour and various spells before Albus finally turned back into his human form, even though his tongue still was as long as a lizard's.

"I am so grateful, my dear! I owe you a lot", Albus thanked his deputy, smiling down at her after he had hurriedly put back on his robes while Minerva had turned, her cheeks blushing until they had the colour of a tomato.

"At first you owe me a explanation, Albus! I had a horrible week, I barely slept or had any rest because I had to clean up the mess you left behind! I was barely able to safe you from being sacked by the school council and it took me a whole afternoon to prevent Severus from resigning!" Minerva recalled the last days, giving him an accusing stare and Albus truly looked sorry.

"My dear, I fear I have become consumed by this book and its, well... interesting spells!"

"Interesting you call them? Where did you find this book?" Minerva asked unbelievingly, putting down the book on the coffee table.

"I was strolling around in the library one night and somehow found it hidden behind a row of transfiguration books – I did not know that these spells were mischievous! I thought they were invented to be helpful: the colours of the portraits should have been renewed and Severus' hair... let us say I wanted to help him with this grease problem. But at least one was okay – how did you like the flowers I did send to you?"

"These were carnivores, Albus! Never trust a old book that was HIDDEN, presumably in order to prevent it from doing any more harm! I thought that you would be wiser – keeping it and trying the spells is something a student would do!" Minerva sighed, shaking her head. Here she was, lecturing one of the brightest heads of their century over a fault a First Year would have made once and never again.

"I am so sorry, my dear, I... maybe I deserved being transformed into a lizard, after all I let my curiosity reign over me leaving you alone with the school business... I hope you can forgive me, Minerva...," Albus said, gently taking her hand into his and Minerva simply could not resist the look he gave her with his light blue eyes and she smiled slightly.

"I forgive you, Albus, but only if you go on a walk with me and throw this book into the Black Lake – and I want a real bouquet of flowers!"

Albus placed a kiss on her knuckles and whispered:"Everything you want, my dear. Everything."


End file.
